The FBI suspects the head of a Russian cultural exchange program in Washington of recruiting young Americans as spies, organizing their trips to Russia. The accused diplomat is perplexed by the claims, lamenting a return of Cold War rhetoric.

Russian diplomat Yury Zaitsev who heads the exchange program in
the US capital has been flagged by American authorities as a
possible spy recruiter.

A leak about the investigation Zaitsev has been published by
several US media outlets, including the internet version of the
Washington Post and leftist web media outlet Mother Jones.

The unnamed sources in the FBI told journalists that Zaitsev and
his associates have organized expenses-paid visits to Russia for
about 130 American citizens, mostly nonprofit workers, business
people and political aides.

For certain visitors, the Russian side absorbed transportation
and accommodation charges, though the Americans do not have
information confirming that Zaitsev personally accompanied any of
the visitors on their trips to Russia.

The FBI claims the center’s executive has been preparing files on
those visiting Russia and could potentially be paving the way for
future recruiting of the participants in the exchange program.

There is no mention of any solid proof in favor of this theory.
The only apparently suspicious moment in center’s work is that in
certain cases the Russian side covered transportation and
accommodation expenses.

The Russian government has received the news with perplexity,
saying that the “allegations have nothing to do with
reality.”

“We believe that these media publications and the actions of
the US authorities are unfriendly and are aimed at aggravating
the situation in the area of international humanitarian
cooperation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a
statement.

Russia urged US authorities to distance themselves from the
"malicious attempts to cast a shadow on the activities" of
the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Washington.

“We expect that in further comments on this issue, the US will
reiterate its commitment to a progressive course of joint work in
this area,” the ministry said.

After the incident, Russian diplomats said that Cold War rhetoric
had again become come part of bilateral relations.

“It's a shame that the Cold War echoes from time to time in
Russian-American relations,” Zaitsev said, exclusively to
ITAR-TASS. “Someone must be itching to drop an iron curtain
between our countries again,” he said.

The services promoted by the Russian Center for Science and
Culture are “absolutely overt” and no less transparent
than similar US programs promoted in Russia, Zaitsev stressed.

“Detailed information on our programs and projects can be
found on our website,” he said (rs.gov.ru, in Russian).

In the meantime, FBI agents interrogate exchange program
participants, asking them to describe their activities in Russia.
Participants of the exchange programs confirmed to Mother Jones
they have received official notifications from the FBI in regard
of Zaitsev and his activities.

'Spy scandals are the simplest thing to resort to'

Zaitsev himself has called the ongoing investigation “a kind
of witch-hunt.” He maintains the FBI is “chasing the boys
and girls” who visited Russia, demanding they reveal what
they were doing during the visit.

“There is a process underway to create fear of Russia in the
American society... I believe this is simply unacceptable,”
he said.

RT managed to catch up with the diplomat, who said he was waiting
for some official reaction from the Americans.

“Spy scandals are the
simplest thing to resort to. Does this have to do with the
current NSA scandal? Are they trying to say that everyone who
travels to Russia is being watched, their emails monitored, that
if you make a step towards Russia, we’ll know and say that you
have been recruited by Russia, by some unknown organization. God
knows where or how? I just can’t believe a thing like this would
cross someone’s mind,” Zaitsev told RT.

"Of course we are not
spies. We are doing the job we've been tasked with. The task of
bringing closer, in my view, Russian and American nations, that
allows forging relationships and mutual understanding, to surpass
those misunderstandings that emerge from the relations we have
inherited from the past."

FBI spokesman Jason Pack declined to comment on the issue. But an
unknown special services representative has hinted that the US
authorities might ask Yury Zaitsev to leave the country,
ITAR-TASS reports.

Russia’s Rossotrudnichestvo (Federal Agency for the Commonwealth
of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and
International Humanitarian Cooperation), which deals with
cultural exchanges globally, was created in 2008 and is currently
headed by politician and diplomat Konstantin Kosachev. The body
is represented in 77 countries in 59 special centers of Russian
culture and science and within 18 national diplomatic missions.